Comments on: Anyone with a very premature infant?

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:27:59 +0000

My daughter was born at 24 weeks and weighed 1 1/12 lbs. Luckily I lived near one of the best hospitals in the country for NICU care. She was in the hospital for 15 weeks. Now she is a normal straight A student headed for university next year. No one else understands the journey if they haven’t travelled it themselves. I remember us cheering for a 1 gram weight gain.
best of luck.
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By: Cblack02

Cblack02 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:14:59 +0000

My son was born at 30 weeks, he was actually a twin, his brother we lost at that time, stillborn. My surviving son weighed 2 lbs 13 oz, and spent 7 weeks in the hospital. He was my first child (I’ve since had another boy, full term) so I cannot relate as to experiencing taking care of your little girl in the hospital as well as your children at home, however, I can say that breastfeeding him was so difficult and stressful, he just wouldn’t latch! I eventually gave up after 3 months of pumping and trying to breastfeed whenever I was at the hospital. Just wasn’t going to happen for us, however I do know lots of the other women with their babies in the NICU were able to eventually establish a healthy breastfeeding schedule, over time.
As for no hubby, I can also understand, partially. My husband was suffering from a mental illness at the time (he has since sought help and is much much better now) and was mentally checked out, he just slept all day and visited our son maybe 3 times the whole 7 weeks! So it was like I was all alone.
Feel free to add me as a friend if you want to further talk about everything your going through. But if you are attempting breastfeeding, it sounds like she’s doing pretty good! Lungs must be doing very well if she’s not on tube feedings anymore!
Good luck to you and your little girl, it’s difficult, it’s heartbreaking, but remember, you have to take sometime for yourself (easy enough said, but you have other children to take care of too) make sure you are eating and sleeping well, I saw so many moms in the NICU who at first felt like they needed to spend every waking moment there. I told a few of them, no one is going to think anything negative if you go home, sleep in and have a nice long shower!
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Mother of a healthy 26 month old, born at 30 weeks

By: Kruggel21

Kruggel21 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:33:59 +0000

My baby was born right at the 36 week mark. I know that’s not as premature as yours, but he’s still in the NICU so he may has well have been. He was born by c-section so I can’t drive to see him and though he’s only 50 miles away… he may as well be 500. Breastfeeding? I can only assume you’re pumping on his schedule. Nurses told me my lil guy eats every 3 hours, so that’s how often I pump at home. (every 4 at night) When I do get to go see him, I let the nurses know I’m coming so they can hold off on feeding him so I can breast feed. I do about 7-8 minutes on each side, and then bottle feed my breast milk. Because of his prematurity… breastfeeding really does tucker him out quite quick and I don’t mind bottle feeding him "my milk" cuz it comes out easier and I know how much he’s getting. It’s hard. It’s hard missing someone so much that you hardly ever got to see in the first place. It’s hard doing all this work (getting nursery ready, washing all clothes, pumping all the time) when you don’t have a baby in the crib/in your arms to show for it. They tell me it’s all worth it and I’ll (almost) forget aaaaalllll about it when it’s over. God has us in His hands, and he has our children too. Our babies have some catching up to do, so let the Lord be with our doctors as they get our kids ready for the "official" start at their lives.
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